Chicago Fire Head Coach and Director of Soccer Frank Yallop
Opening remarks
“It’s always good to win any match, and I think that on the basis of the play we had, especially the first half, I thought we deserved to win the game. So, obviously, the red card for Parkhurst makes a difference in the match, but I still felt from that, we went on and had a good performance. To score four goals in any game – although we got an extra 30 minutes to do that – is good. Pleased for the guys. You know, the Crew made it difficult. We went up and then we go down. But we came back into it, good substitutions by the staff, if I do say so myself, to bring Juan on. But Juan’s been waiting for a chance, and I was very happy for him to get two goals tonight.”
On Juan Luis Anangono’s performance
“If you look at Juan’s production, especially maybe earlier when he’s played a little more minutes…I forget the game we had at home, he got brought down for the penalty kick. He scored a goal in one of the games. He missed the PK. He could’ve scored that one. So, what I will say about Juan is he’s a terrific professional. He’s been right with the team all along, with not getting many minutes because of Quincy’s play I feel like. But what I like about him is the way he goes about it. He tries very hard for the team. And I’m very, very happy for him to get the two goals tonight.”
On Mike Magee’s status
“He got clocked in the ankle when I think it was Kevan George caught him with the challenge. So we’ll see how he is, but I’m not sure right now.”
On what changed in the second half
“I said to our guys at halftime ‘they’re going to make changes’ because I thought we outplayed them completely the first half. So I said, ‘Expect to see changes.’ And I think that the goal from Anor, he made a difference. They were more forceful. They tried to quickly counter attack on us. And to be honest, they did a good job. And I think that until we kind of figured it out towards the end of the game, we were in a bit of trouble. So again, we’ve got to be better at doing a 90-minute game and making sure that we see it through and do our thing. But what I will say is that the fighting spirit in the guys to come back again and to go on and win the game is great. It’d just be nice to put a good performance of 2 or 3 to nil at some point. It’d be nice, but we’re not there yet. We’re trying hard. And I can’t fault the guys for effort at all. They’ve been great.”
On making adjustments throughout the game
“We were down in the game, so we have to push it. Bringing on Alex is a bit more attacking minded than putting Logan in his role. Juan’s a forward, he wants to score goals. Bringing him on obviously is key. I just wanted to bring on a fresh defender with Jhon. I felt that Columbus was getting into the game with the quick breaks. I wanted to make sure that we shored that up a little bit. You know, I was pleased with the subs that came on. They did a nice job. And I think the whole team responded when we did that.”
Chicago Fire forward Juan Luis Anangono
On the opportunity to come into the game and be a hero
“The team worked hard to get all the goals and I’m personally happy to have scored the two goals. I think the whole team are heroes. The whole team worked hard. This is a team, we’re 11 players and seven subs and other players that are all helping the team. This is a team, there isn’t one hero. If there’s a hero, it’s the team. We all have the characteristics and we’re all ready to play. Who plays and who doesn’t is the decision of the coach. I think the coach does what is best for the team, thinking of who will help the team. I believe we’re all good players and we all need to be ready to help at whatever moment.”
Chicago Fire midfielder Jeff Larentowicz
On using the Open Cup games to help turn things around over the break
“It’s just about the will to win, and taking care of the things we should. I think that having two home games in the Open Cup is a good opportunity for us to get into a rhythm. We’ve had some injuries and we’ve gotten some guys back. Right now we’re just finding a way to win and build on that heading back into the regular season.”
On how this will help going back to MLS play next week
“The guys that are playing in these games are probably the guys that will be playing once the regular season starts up again, so I think it’s about everyone developing a rhythm and understanding each other. If we can create goals we can start to see patterns of play we like to do and hopefully we can carry those in the regular season again.”
On training during the break
“I think over the past couple of weeks it’s just been about getting bodies back. For a while there we were pretty thin, and now it’s about getting everyone back, veteran guys, healthy and training hard again because we have trained well the last couple of weeks and I think it’s showing in games.
Chicago Fire forward Quincy Amarikwa
On coming back in the second half to get the result
“We just battled. Unfortunately, we let them score two unanswered [goals]. After we came in at halftime, we said we wanted to come out on front foot, but we dug in. Juan [Luis Anangono] came off the bench and really made an impact on the game, he helped us tie it up and the rest is history.”
On Columbus’ play in the second half:
“When you’re the team on the road and down a goal at halftime, you don’t have anything to lose. So, you kind of throw everything but the kitchen sink at the home team, and that second goal kind of just fell their way. I don’t think there’s any kind of defensive error from thinking about it. I’d have to go back and look at the tape, he just happened to be at the right place at the right time and took advantage of it and they capitalized.”
Columbus Crew Head Coach Gregg Berhalter
On the match:
“I thought it was a good game. We put a different system into play and the guys knew about it at the last moment. We wanted to try something. We got a lot out of that exercise. I’m proud of the way they adapted to the system, and proud of the way they played the game. Specifically, the second half, where I thought we were extremely dominant.”
On rallying his team at half time:
“We weren’t confident in our movement in terms of how we were executing what we designed. The message was positive. All things considered, it’s a good job. Now here’s what we can do to make it even better. The guys did that, especially in the second half. They played really well.”
On Arrieta’s goal:
“It was a great goal. Great move. Good finish. It was good. We need Jairo to score those goals. He had some other chances as well and we want him to be dangerous.”
On the team’s defensive 5-man posture tonight:
“It was good. We honestly gave them this today. So having said that, I think they did a great job. It was something where we felt we wanted to take a look at. We thought we could expose some things of theirs and take advantage of an organized back line.”
On Chicago’s equalizer late in the second half:
“If I take anything from the game, I’m most disappointed with that. I think that when you are at that stage of the game, you got to be disciplined enough to carry it out. And I would say it’s a little bit of the guys who haven’t been getting enough minutes. They weren’t comfortable in that position. Chicago is putting more pressure on us, and we just needed to be brave and keep playing. I thought we stopped doing that. As a result, we got punished.”
Columbus Crew Midfielder Bernardo Anor
On the match:
“It was a crazy game. I think we had the opportunity to close down the match. We started to lose 1-0, and then we went up 2-1, and then 7 minutes left we let them tie the game which leads us to overtime. Then we give up two goals. That killed the game so we should have done better towards the end of the game.”
On coming back to take the lead in the second half:
“A lot of new guys on the field. For all of us, we need to hold ourselves accountable to do whatever it takes to get a ‘w’ and I think the performance for most of the guys was pretty impressive. We were trying out a new system and it’s the first time we did such a thing. Some of the things we did out there we are forced to take home and assess them, and get better at them.”
On his goal scored in the 70th minute:
“Speas was coming in with his right foot and I was just making the run to play me through and I decided to shoot the goal. I gathered the rebound and saw it was wide open and got it with my left foot.”
On his thoughts on the new system:
“It’s a transition game, pretty much. Having five in the back, we knew that Chicago was going to have one of the guys come in pretty deep and have the ball so one of the purposes for one of the 3 center backs to release his man and come help us in the middle. So by the time we win the ball, we got to push all the backs forward and get numbers up. I think we’re going to do a better job in doing that. Again, it’s the first time but I think working on it we can pull it off.”
On returning to playing FC Dallas on Saturday in league play:
“We don’t like losing of course, but I think the positive thing is we will be 100% in getting those 3 points against Dallas. We need to focus on that so now our priority is to get good rest and our mind ready for the game.”
